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26 June 2014

Blog Tour: 'The Bookshop on the Corner' by Rebecca Raisin

Who said that only real heroes could be found in fiction?

Sarah Smith had an addiction – she was addicted to romance novels. The meet-cute, the passion, the drama and the gorgeous men! Now this wouldn’t have been such an issue if she hadn’t been the owner of the only bookshop in Ashford, Connecticut.

Ever since her close friend Lil, from The Gingerbread Café, had become engaged she had been yearning for a little love to turn up in her life. Except Sarah knew a good man was hard to find – especially in a tiny town like Ashford. That was until New York journalist, Ridge Warner stepped into her bookshop…

Love could be just around the corner for Sarah, but will she be able to truly believe that happy-ever-after can happen in real-life too!

Today I’m really excited to be part of the blog tour organised by the lovely girls over at Gosling Girls Book Tours for Rebecca Raisin’s latest novella, ‘The Bookshop on the Corner’, which was released on the 17th of June 2014. Some of you might have come across Rebecca’s name during the past few months in connection with her series about The Gingerbread Cafe. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to read those novellas yet, but I am familiar with Rebecca’s work, only under her pseudonym, Billie Jones. I got the chance to review ‘Mexican Kimono’ last year, a read I really enjoyed (click here to read my review), so I was excited to read something of Rebecca’s romance work this time around!

‘The Bookshop on the Corner’ tells the story of Sarah Smith who owns her own lovely book shop in Ashford, a small town in Connecticut. Sarah loves nothing more than making herself comfortable with a good romance novel in order to dream away about an attractive man who can sweep her off her feet. But, one day, when Sarah is stuck with her nose in another novel, an actual handsome stranger walks into her book shop. Ridge Warner is a journalist from New York who is writing an article about the small town of Ashford and Sarah and her bookshop have managed to get his attention. Will Sarah be able to step away from the pages of her beloved romance novels and take this chance to find love in the real world?

This is a novella book lovers will undoubtedly fall in love with, just like I did. It was easy to warm to Sarah, because I could recognise myself in her. I’d do anything to be the owner of an amazing book shop like the one described in this story; it sounds like such a wonderful place, heaven on earth for book lovers! Rebecca Raisin’s descriptive writing style really made it easy for me to imagine everything in my head; not just the book shop, but the entire village and the cast of amazing characters. I loved Sarah’s friends, such as her best friend Missy, who runs the beauty salon in town, and CeeCee and Lils from the Gingerbread Cafe, and there’s also the handsome stranger, Ridge; I could completely understand why Sarah was swept off her feet by him!

I’m not familiar with Rebecca Raisins’ other novellas about the Gingerbread Cafe; this didn’t bother me while reading this particular story, so it definitely works as a stand-alone. It did make me curious, though, and I look forward to picking up Rebecca’s other stories in the near future! If I have to name one thing I thought was a bit of a shame, it has to be the fact that this is a novella. The story was quite short and I finished it rather quickly. I fell in love with the characters, the storyline, and the setting, and I definitely wouldn’t have minded if this had been an entire book, with space for more background information and more details. Overall, ‘The Bookshop on the Corner’ is a simply charming, wonderful, quick read; a story which any chick lit/romance/book fan will certainly enjoy.